Tag Archives: advertisements

When looking to strike a chord with millennials and Generation Z, six-second advertisements lead the way.

A new form of video storytelling has hit the market. With lower attention spans and increased usage of mobile devices across multiple generations, six-seconds advertisements are the solution.

As brands and agencies prepare for this new era, these six-second video advertisements convey simple messages making immediate connections with viewers. There is a niche gap in the market for six-second media engagements and brands have begun to fill that void.

Although these advertisements were first introduced by YouTube as, “bumper ads,” several corporations have joined the movement utilizing the format. Fox began pushing out six-second advertisements during live sporting events, announcing that they will air nine of these short spots during its Thanksgiving Day NFL game. Prior to this announcement, Fox had been running six-second commercials in NFL games and the World Series. Similarly, AMC has decided to run six-second commercials during this season of the series, The Walking Dead. Facebook has also followed suit, announcing intentions to revamp six-second advertisements on its platform.

Even Twitter wants to join the six-second ad craze. In an effort to produce these short spots, they created, #Fuel. This new service is designed to help advertisers create content specifically for the platform as well as edit videos to conform to the six-second trend.

While six-second advertisements are a fairly new format, they have certainly left an impression already. According to a Google-led study, nine out of 10 six-second advertisements drove recall and 61 percent increased brand awareness.

Viewers want entertainment, innovation and disruption, and six-second spots seamlessly fit the mold. While advertisers continuously look to improve the viewing experience, adding celebrity features as another layer to the mix could be just what they need.

While six-second spots are defining digital presence, celebrities and influencers have already marked their territory in the digital sphere. Because celebrity marketing dominates digital, this “snackable content” elicits a new opportunity for brands to enhance this innovative format. Shorter advertisements certainly engage viewers, but celebrities have the potential to make these spots unforgettable. The combination of powerful celebrity marketing and the allure of six-second advertisements can lead to competitive advantages.

Getting right to the point, six-second advertisements keep viewers tuned in, especially millennials and Generation Z consumers with shorter attention spans. These short spots have the potential to command the digital sphere and further evolve with the inclusion of celebrities and influencers.

Brands work tirelessly to create strong emotional and truthful connections with their audience. Because consumers connect well with celebrities on an emotional level, brands should select celebrities who carry a recognizable, authentic and credible demeanor.

As social media continues to become a window into the lives of celebrities, brands must work diligently to ensure that their celebrity partner promotes the same authenticity as the brand. Consumers frequently hold the expectation that brands will do more than simply sell a product, but rather work hard to create a trusting atmosphere.

To establish that trusting atmosphere, brands should partner with the right celebrities who can help promote products in the most natural and truthful way.

For instance, blatant and obvious brand advertisements posted on celebrities’ social media accounts do not create strong emotional ties. Consumers see right through these branded endorsements and keep scrolling. However, celebrity postings that integrate a brand’s product organically and convincingly will catch consumers’ attention.

For example, professional basketball player, Kevin Durant, built his relationship with Sparkling Ice on authenticity. Durant, a real life consumer of the zero-calorie carbonated water, was interested in a partnership with the company. As soon as Sparkling Ice caught wind of the Durant’s inquiry, they knew their sponsorship relationship would be a success because their bond was built on genuine, demonstrated interest.

Celebrity and influencer marketing has been rated as the fastest-growing way to grab online customers. Despite this success, marketers need to continually ask questions as the consumer landscape evolves.

What does our consumer base care about? How should we align the brand with those causes? What channels will have the strongest influence?

Although the answers to these three questions are not the same, all three answers address the same topic of authenticity. As brands have the opportunity to connect with consumers, they need to invest in the celebrity who best matches their beliefs as well as their audience.

In adopting the use of celebrity marketing, authenticity and transparency are critical. As information is more readily available in today’s social media landscape, consumers are not afraid to look beneath the surface and confirm that brands are using celebrities with credibility.

Nothing sells like a celebrity, especially when trying to bring older brands back to the forefront.

Brands leave long lasting impressions and establish strong bonds with consumers. In an ever-changing world, brands come and go, leaving consumers without their favorite go-to items. In order to bring a brand back to life, celebrity marketing builds awareness quickly, helps take market share from competitors and creates a strong emotional connection to buy.

Celebrities have long served as the public face of brands, but now they are being tapped to help brands return to the limelight. In addition to serving as a trusted trendsetter, celebrities serve as human billboards.

The popularity of classic brands can be traced back to various celebrities. Whether celebrities are endorsing a product, sporting the merchandise or even creating alliances, classic brands can meet or exceed previous success using celebrities to communicate their message.

For example, Reebok partnered with top fashion model, Gigi Hadid, in an effort to gain more popularity. Although the brand has been in existence for years, using celebrity marketing is the best method to invest in the brand’s existence for the years to come.

Similarly, Coach made a comeback using celebrity marketing. Despite being a top-seller in the 1990s, the logo-heavy leather goods fell out of the mainstream. In order to reemerge in the accessories industry, they used singing sensation, Selena Gomez. As the new face of Coach, Gomez has helped to create playful and eclectic designs that are a must-have for all young millennial girls, breathing new life into the brand.

While celebrity marketing is one of the most effective and successful ways to reintroduce a brand, it is not the only way.

Brands can make a comeback appealing to both old and new customers by tapping into nostalgia, completely overhauling and rebooting the brand, and utilizing social media as well as other digital channels.

As brand marketing continues to adapt and evolve, classic brands have managed to stay popular by using celebrity marketing. These classic brands remain successful because they have picked up on the one thing many disregard. That is, consumers strive for things they cannot have, and thus as an alternative, they choose to live vicariously through the products in connection with celebrities.

So, if you are the next brand thinking about making a bold comeback, who better to help market your product than a trusted, popular and admired celebrity. With their large following and strong influence, there is no denying that their help can restore your brand to what it once was.

Brands can stand out with cultural intelligence and promise.

What exactly is cultural intelligence and how does it relate to brands?

Cultural intelligence is the power that brings brands to the forefront of current events. It has the ability to drive brand growth and create iconic brands.

Cultural intelligence is the ability to relate to and work effectively across cultures. When brands consistently communicate with their audience and constantly deliver on the promise they make, brands demonstrate cultural intelligence.

Brands that strive for success must be relevant in the rapidly evolving culture of consumers. Brands that ignore the now and the cultures that ensue go unnoticed and appear out of touch. As a result, brands must work alongside current events, co-creating culture through music, sport, fashion, etc.

One way brands can work alongside, while also creating culture is through celebrities. The popularity of celebrities spans all cultures and directly influences consumers. Celebrities help brands establish the iconic image they desire and further stress the brands’ promise to consumers.

A celebrity marketing campaign is an extension of a brand’s cultural intelligence. It proves the brand understands consumers’ wants and needs in the current culture climate in order to establish a connection.

Embedding brands into culture is a long-term strategic venture. However, by understanding and embracing culture, brands are able to project their image beyond simple advertising and spark interest amongst consumers.

It is the brand’s commitment to stay true to its core beliefs and promises. The more consistently and emphatically brands dedicate themselves to their promise and to culture, the greater its significance factor. With strong significance and a boost from celebrity endorsements, brands not only look successful, but become symbolic.

Although it may seem that consumers dominate in this ever-changing world, it is important to remember brands have a unique advantage. Using their cultural intelligence and promise, brands can engage with and influence culture. It is culture that persuades consumers and keeps brands in the limelight.

When it comes to sporting events, celebrities and social media are the major players driving social engagement before, during, and after the game.

The impact of celebrities on audience engagement at sporting events is real. The impact of social media on audience engagement is just as real. Combined, these two influential forces and sporting events become one dynamite hotspot for brands to connect with fans.

Linking popular marketing campaigns to high-profile sporting events is not a new idea. However, the rise of social media adds a valuable, new element to the marketing mix. When social platforms work hand-in-hand with celebrity marketing campaigns featured at major sporting events, audience engagement will increase.

Brands that are able to generate creative and compelling videos can drive social engagement surrounding sporting events. Using the power of social media, these videos may become viral and generate buzz around the event. Similarly, brands featuring celebrities within their marketing campaigns at sporting events can achieve higher levels of engagement.

Beyond simply creating buzz, well-known sports teams and their social channels have found a way to engage with sports fans during the actual event.

A few professional sports teams have figured out how to draw attention away from personal phone screens and attract fans to the only screen that matters, the jumbotron. The Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Sounders and San Francisco Giants use technology powered by Tagboard that shows their Instagram stories on massive displays inside the stadium. These teams have found the way to grow their social media followings and also keep the focus on the field.

Combining celebrity title with social media, these sports teams engage fans, while still promoting their brand. As teams recognize this potential for branding, they discover ways to monetize content.

In addition, these massive displays take fan engagement another step further by featuring user-generated content. This keeps fans involved in the action on the field, while simultaneously becoming the focus of the screen. Furthermore, Tagboard created a tool that makes it easier to search content across keyboards, phrases, accounts and hashtags.

Tagboard has put a new spin on advertising during sporting events. Brands that want to get a leg up and connect with sports fans must recognize the influence of celebrity marketing and in turn, create captivating video content for social media platforms that will get fans involved.

Video advertisements are the hottest trend in grabbing consumers’ attention.

Celebrity marketing is powerful. Social media is powerful, and the newest power tool in the mix is video content. Video content is viewed on more devices and in more places than ever before. When these three platforms are combined, the possibilities and opportunities are endless.

Several social media channels, such as Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat and Twitter, are eager to increase usage and snatch a larger portion of digital video ad revenues. To achieve greater audience attention, social platforms are diving deep into the digital video advertising sphere. These platforms are adapting to the popularity growth spurt of video and repositioning themselves to better attract consumers.

More specifically, videos of celebrity endorsements can bring big revenue to those video advertisements and the social platforms that host them.

For example, Facebook has not always been thought of as the go-to place to watch a show. But, with the ever-changing times, Facebook is changing their tune by offering programming and a new video platform, Watch. Arranged by what Facebook users’ friends and communities are watching, the Watch platform allows video creators to release their episodes in an organized fashion while also engaging viewers in conversation.

Along with the Watch platform, Facebook is diving further into the digital sphere with its attempt at earning digital video advertising revenue. To do so, Facebook is selling in-stream-only video advertisements. These advertisements will appear only in videos that people watch on its network or across its ad network of third-party sites and apps.

Similarly, Reddit is paying more attention to the power of video on its platform. Making video an essential component, Reddit launched its first household video experience. Users will no longer be redirected to YouTube to share videos. Rather, users will be able to upload videos directly to the Reddit website. Without skipping a beat, Reddit now exposes users to auto-play video advertisements.

Meanwhile, Snapchat’s entire foundation features creative and short video content, which instantly grabs the attention of younger consumers. Although it is a unique format, its network provides marketers with immense potential for video ad revenue.

Twitter is another social channel trying to make video a core part of its platform, incorporating live and event-driven video content on its feed. In addition, Twitter delivers advertisements throughout these showings, targeting their audience in an engaged setting and opening the door for more video ad revenue.

Consumers are blasted with advertisements day after day. In an effort to escape from a workaholic lifestyle, consumers embrace entertainment as an enjoyable distraction. As attention spans grow shorter and ad-blocking efforts grow stronger, brands have to find a way to push through the clutter and become memorable.

In order to do so, companies have to move from simply adding brand value to adding entertainment value. Not only should companies sponsor the brand content, but these brands need to be the entertainment.

This “don’t sell, entertain” mindset has gained momentum, especially as musical artists, television stars and athletes have joined the movement. Celebrity marketing content that is entertaining erases the idea that advertisements are purely promotional.

Below are a few brands who have successfully used celebrity marketing to execute this approach:

North Face

With the help of Spotify, North Face partnered with White Denim to take advertisements to a whole new level.

In an effort to promote North Face’s Apex Flex GTX rain jacket, Spotify released the first weather-triggered song. White Denim’s song, “No Nee Ta Slode Aln” was made available by Spotify only in U.S. regions receiving rainfall. Using ClimaTune, Spotify determined which markets to release the song.

In addition, “No Nee Ta Slode Aln” can be heard throughout the marketing campaign for North Face’s new rain jacket.

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut partnered with Kristin Wiig for its “Everyman” campaign with a goal to showcase how hot and fresh pizza can be loved by all.

Wiig is featured in two TV advertisements playing a variety of characters, such as an older farmer, male cheerleader, business woman, and mechanic. Chief brand and concept officer of Pizza Hut, Jeff Fox, was quoted in AdWeek saying, “Wiig was a great fit for the role because of her versatility and her ability to play so many different characters – as shown seen in her time on Saturday Night Live.”

Channeling these various personas, Wiig uses her celebrity status to entertain viewers and also promote Pizza Hut as a brand for everyone.

Chase

For its “Battle of the Paddle” digital banking campaign, Chase partnered with not just one celebrity athlete, but two. NBA player Stephen Curry and professional tennis player Serena Williams go head-to-head in an impressive battle of ping pong to promote the convenience of Chase Quickpay.

Yet, before the commercial even launched, Chase created teaser content on various social media channels to encourage viewer interaction. The company gave viewers the choice of #TeamStephen or #TeamSerena to build hype and create social buzz.

The teaser content alone amassed three million video views across Instagram and Facebook.

Altogether, these three examples illustrate the power of celebrity marketing as a form of entertainment. Interrupting consumers with branded messages no longer works. Brands have to create entertainment and decide which celebrity can best enhance their message if they are going to connect with consumers.

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I'm Bob Williams, CEO| Speaker | Author of The Brand Agent

The Brand Agent provides resources on how to build brands through celebrities, music and sports.

Celebrity marketing requires special knowledge and skills. My articles are intended to help save you time, money and frustration.

Over my career, I have led in negotiating thousands of celebrity contracts and helped match small and large brands with the right celebrity. I’m glad to share my celebrity marketing expertise with you.